@ Chronic

Nordstrom department stores have agreed to pull from store shelves a nifty new flip-flop flask that alcohol-prevention advocates say could help underage drinkers hide their booze, reports Boston University School of Public Health's Join Together.

Apparently communications director Pete Schulberg of the Oregon Partnership, a nonprofit drug/alcohol awareness and prevention group, was strolling through a Portland, Ore., Nordstrom store not long ago when he spied the Reef brand Dram sandal – a flip-flop with a flask, funnel, and plastic key fitted in the heel – in the department store's famed shoe department. Schulberg was not amused – not, apparently, at the idea of sucking back a sip from a shoe but at the idea that the hidden flask could be perfect for teens wishing to hide their booze from adults. He ticked off a letter to Nordstrom Prez Erik B. Nordstrom, JT reports, describing the sandal as a possible scourge supporter: "We believe that if we are to make inroads into the crisis that is underage drinking, products such as the Reef flip-flops should not be sold under the Nordstrom banner and in Nordstrom stores," Schulberg wrote. In response, Erik B. left a voice message for Schulberg, agreeing to pull the flip-flop from store shelves – the product, he said, is "ridiculous." "Our goal is to have great fashion," Nordstrom spokesman Michael Boyd told JT, and that doesn't include that "gimmicky" flip-flop, which he said simply "doesn't fit with our merchandising mix."

Posted Monday, Nov. 19.